A 27-year-old New Orleans man triggered the shooting that left him and two others dead inside the Jefferson Gun Outlet in Metairie on Saturday afternoon, according to law sources.
The sources said Joshua Jamal Williams was carrying a pistol with a magazine extended to the gun store and indoor firing range on 6719 Airline Drive at about 3 pm on Saturday, when the team told him to unload his gun. The rules prohibit people from carrying weapons out of reach.
Williams subsequently fired a warning round before fatally shooting a clerk, 47-year-old Noah Fischbach, who was married and father, one of the sources said. Several armed people at the Jefferson Gun Outlet then started exchanging shots with Williams.
‘Everyone is tied up there,’ says the customer
Williams and a woman were hit and fatally wounded during the melee. He died after running into the parking lot, and the woman died near the store’s front glass door, which was broken. Two other people were injured and taken to hospital, and their injuries were not considered fatal, said the Jefferson parish sheriff’s office.
A relative of Williams on Saturday wondered what may have triggered the first shots. The relative doubted that Williams, who had gone to the store to practice target shooting while spending time with his brother and some children, would have appeared for a shootout in a place known to be a meeting place for off-duty and former police officers. military.
“That would be a death sentence,” said the relative, who declined to reveal his name.
A social media profile under the name Fischbach describes him as a special effects technician and gunsmith – or someone who handles weapons – for film and television productions. In addition to Metairie and New Orleans, he lived in Portland, Oregon.
Photos on social media show him with his wife and children. Other information on social media shows that Fischbach and his wife had 14 years of marriage less than two weeks before his murder.
Read more here: 3 dead, 2 wounded in shots at Jefferson Gun Outlet in Metairie, officials say